Code-Switching By Multilingual Pakistanis On Twitter: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Code-switching is practicing two different grammatical systems where multilinguals also move between two languages or between two dialects or registers of the same language. In the current article, code-switching is characterized as the simultaneous use of two or more languages or dialects within a conversation. The current study focused on code-switching practices on the social media website Twitter. While posting on Twitter, multilinguals may use several languages. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze code-switched Tweets for any recurring patterns and practices. The population of this study involved Twitter users living in the Rawalpindi-Islamabad area of Pakistan. The Tweets were collected on the basis of time and location through random cluster sampling method. Qualitative analysis of the individual Tweets was done, and recurring patterns were pointed out. This was purely observational research. It was found that the sampled Tweets only codeswitched between Urdu and English. Code-switching at the intra-sentential level was more common than the inter-sentential level. Code-switching at the level of clauses was the most common form of intra-sentential code-switching. Over half of the inter-sentential codeswitching had the English sentence(s) preceding the Urdu sentence(s). The findings suggest that code-switching between English and Urdu occurs more commonly at the intra-sentential level. They further imply that the population generally prefers to start inter-sentential codeswitching with English before code-switching to Urdu. The results of this study may be useful in demystifying the phenomenon of code-switching in online spaces.